Six Nations - written in the stars?

It's an IRFU policy... all things Irish are made up as they go. As soon as Sexton went to France, the IRFU bent everything to keep him in the national side (and to get him back playing for Leinster to save face), whereas players with a lesser profile may have felt shafted over the years.

Geordan Murphy is an example of a talented player that often got overlooked because he played for Leicester. Marty Moore is set to sign with Wasps for the 16/17 season, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there.
 
mbnu54 said:
Havn't seen this many scrums in a game for years, real battle of the forwards. Apart from that quite a scrappy game!
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France to win the Grand Slam by illegally removing each opposition team's important players, if that was anything to go by. Hideous refereeing during the first half; he missed forward passes by both teams, two off the ball shoulder charges and more besides. That being said, Ireland didn't take advantage of posession and territory during the first half, and, as their substitiutions were to replace injured players, they were unable to counter the replacement French front row.
 
Fuck sake... just about to post my thoughts on today's game and something went tits up and it all got lost.

Anyway, in short -

Soft Ireland left the door open to an average France team and got mugged, deservedly so. Ref was poor, but not as poor as the Irish scrum. No excuses.

Plucky by Scotland, but not good enough. Wales quality shone through as expected.

Will watch England and Italy tomorrow if there's nothing else on.
 
I watched both matches - couldn't really get too excited about the French despite looking forward to seeing their left wing who got such good reviews last week. The Irish appeared to be well aware of his threat and closed him down well. Overall I don't think the French are progressing too well and Ireland are in transition.

The Wales/Scotland game was completely different - if only Scotland didn't make so many mistakes they would have taken something from that game.

What do people think of Wales first try? My immediate reaction was that Jamie Roberts got a hand to the ball and knocked on. However, the TV ref obviously thought different.
 
First try - I thought Scotland knocked on and Wales played the advantage. Scottish defending for the North try was horrendous, 2 or 3 missed tackles.

There was debate about the disallowed Irish try early in the second half. I thought it was without doubt an Irish knock-on.
 
UKRob said:
What do people think of Wales first try? My immediate reaction was that Jamie Roberts got a hand to the ball and knocked on. However, the TV ref obviously thought different.
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Didn't see it that way myself, I must admit. I feel sorry for Scotland, but they seemed to lose accuracy in the second half, and kicked too much, I thought. Wales were average in the first half, but improved significantly in the second.
 
Once I eventually get back into my green wood carving, I may be inclined to offer my services to the national team as it seems we are perennially in danger of receiving the wooden spoon. We can't even rely on Italy beating us to it these days, sadly. A different design for each year?
 
Graeme, compared to last year Scotland are streets ahead of where they were. They competed well yesterday against a good side and away from home. I thought Hogg was having a really good game until he went off injured.

Today's game in Rome will tell you something about Italy - to me they are the wooden spoon favourites. How's that for a hostage to fortune statement from an England fan?
 
chrisbell said:
Didn't see it that way myself, I must admit. I feel sorry for Scotland, but they seemed to lose accuracy in the second half, and kicked too much, I thought. Wales were average in the first half, but improved significantly in the second.
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Quoting myself for a moment; I didn't see the half-time analysis, which apparently suggested strongly that Roberts did drop the ball.
 
Fair play to Italy, played an aggressive well thought out game plan. Had us on the run through most of the first half, depth of squad certainly shone through though. Replacements giving an enourmous lift to the play in the end. Would have probably won without, but as said it's now a real total squad game!
 
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